setup network load balancing

Set up TCP/IP for Network Load Balancing

Updated: January 21, 2005

Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

To set up TCP/IP for Network Load Balancing

1. Open Network Connections.
   
   Important
   
   
   • These steps should be used to configure TCP/IP only if you choose not to use Network Load Balancing Manager to create your cluster. When configuring Network Load Balancing, you can use either Network Load Balancing Manager, or you can access the Network Load Balancing Properties dialog box through Network Connections as described in this procedure. Using Network Load Balancing Manager is the preferred method. For more information on using Network Load Balancing Manager to create a cluster, see "Enable Network Load Balancing" in Related Topics.
     
     
2. Right-click Local Area Connection, and then click Properties.
   
   
3. In the Local Area Connection Properties dialog box, click Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), and then click Properties.
   
   
4. Click Use the following IP address, and then enter the host's dedicated IP address in the space for IP address.
   
   
5. Enter subnet mask and default gateway information for your TCP/IP network.
   
   
6. Save your settings by clicking OK.
   
   
7. On the host you just added, return to Network Connections.
   
   
8. Right-click the network adapter that is using Network Load Balancing and then click Properties.
   
   
9. In the Local Area Connection Properties dialog box, click Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), and then click Properties.
   
   
10. Click Advanced, and then, under IP addresses, click Add.
    
    
11. Enter the cluster IP address in the space for the IP address, followed by the appropriate subnet mask, and then click Add.
    
    This IP address corresponds to the cluster's primary IP address that you entered in the Network Load Balancing Properties dialog box under Cluster parameters when first enabling Network Load Balancing.
    
    
12. If you need to configure additional default gateways or virtual IP addresses for your cluster, you can do so here, in the Advanced TCP/IP Settings dialog box.
    
    

Important

• It is essential that you enter the dedicated IP address first, in the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) Properties dialog box (not in the Advanced TCP/IP Settings dialog box), so that all outbound connections made from this host (for example, Telnet or FTP) are initiated with this address.
  
  
• TCP/IP is the only network protocol that should be present on the cluster adapter. You must not add any other protocols (for example, IPX) to this adapter.
  
  
• Be aware that if you are using Network Load Balancing to load balance Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) servers, you must use two network adapters on each cluster host (although Network Load Balancing does not need to be installed on both adapters). When load balancing PPTP, the hosts can not have a dedicated IP addresses configured.
  
  

Notes

• To perform this procedure, you must be a member of the Administrators group on the local computer, or you must have been delegated the appropriate authority. If the computer is joined to a domain, members of the Domain Admins group might be able to perform this procedure. As a security best practice, consider using Run as to perform this procedure.
  
  
• To open Network Connections, click Start, click Control Panel, and then double-click Network Connections.
  
  
• You should repeat this procedure for each network adapter on which you want to install Network Load Balancing.
  
  
• Both the dedicated IP address and the cluster's primary IP address must be static IP addresses. They cannot be DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) addresses.
  
  
• Regardless of the mode in which Network Load Balancing is operating (unicast or multicast), the steps described previously are the same.
  
  
• Although unicast mode is preferable in many situations, the dedicated IP address, will not be addressable by the other cluster hosts unless multicast support has been enabled in the Network Load Balancing Properties dialog box under Cluster parameters.
  
  
• If only one Local Area Connection icon is displayed in Network Connections, it means that you have only one network adapter installed on your computer. Additional network adapters are represented by additional Local Area Connection icons.
  
  
• If you use two network adapters you should supply an IP address for the default gateway for only one of the adapters (the one with a route to the largest network, for example to the internet).
  
  

Information about functional differences

Your server might function differently based on the version and edition of the operating system that is installed, your account permissions, and your menu settings. For more information, see

Labels:

welsh injury network

Class Action Lawsuits

First of all, let me say that anyone who has been in any way hurt or injured by any other party and settled through a class action lawsuit, disregard this article. I am more interested in the little frivolous lawsuits that award pitiful amounts to offended parties who most likely had no idea they were offended.

There are habitual class action participators and then there are the lucky ones who find themselves on the receiving end of a check to settle a dispute they were most likely never aware of in the first place. And the best part is the size of the checks, often in amounts less than the stamps used to mail them. Nothing like getting a check for fourteen cents in the mail says L. Matthews, whose settlement check in the landmark case against American Express Centurion Bank just arrived.

Sometimes the amount isn't the issue as much as the stipulations surrounding the acceptance of the settlement. In Los Angeles, a judge approved an agreement calling for Sony Pictures Entertainment to pay $1.5 million to settle a class-action lawsuit accusing the studio of citing a fake movie critic in ads for several films, an attorney said Tuesday.

Moviegoers who saw the films "Vertical Limit," "A Knight's Tale," "The Animal," "Hollow Man" or "The Patriot" during their original theater runs must file a claim to be eligible for a $5 per ticket reimbursement, said lawyer Norman Blumenthal, who represented a group of filmgoers who sued Sony Pictures in 2001. What do they do when the 1.5 million runs out? You have to assume more than 300,000 tickets were sold between the four movies.

I have been awarded three ridiculous checks as settlement for things I wasn't truly injured by. I am proud to say those checks; totaling $7.41 were not and never will be cashed. Cashing them would be condoning the practice, where consumers get the pittance, and the attorneys pushing the cases get the nice cars. Me? I'm hoping for a direct hit by a dominoes delivery driver.

Labels:

storage area network technology

Storage area network

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Not to be confused with Network-attached storage.

A storage area network (SAN) is a storage device (such as disk arrays, tape libraries, and optical jukeboxes) accessible to servers so the devices appear as locally attached to the operating system. A SAN typically has its own network of storage devices that are generally not accessible through the regular network by regular devices. The cost and complexity of SANs dropped in the late 2000s, allowing wider adoption across both enterprise and small to medium sized business environments.

A SAN alone does not provide the "file" abstraction, only block-level operations. However, file systems built on top of SANs do provide this abstraction, and are known as SAN filesystems or shared disk file systems.

Contents

[edit] Storage sharing

Organization

Historically, data centers first created "islands" of SCSI disk arrays as direct-attached storage (DAS), each dedicated to an application, and visible as a number of "virtual hard drives" (i.e. LUNs). Essentially, a SAN consolidates such storage islands together using a high-speed network.

Operating systems maintain their own file systems on them on dedicated, non-shared LUNs, as though they were local to themselves. If multiple systems were simply to attempt to share a LUN, these would interfere with each other and quickly corrupt the data. Any planned sharing of data on different computers within a LUN requires advanced solutions, such as SAN file systems or clustered computing.

Despite such issues, SANs help to increase storage capacity utilization, since multiple servers consolidate their private storage space onto the disk arrays.

Common uses of a SAN include provision of transactionally accessed data that require high-speed block-level access to the hard drives such as email servers, databases, and high usage file servers.

[edit] SAN and NAS

Network-attached storage (NAS), in contrast to SAN, uses file-based protocols such as NFS or SMB/CIFS where it is clear that the storage is remote, and computers request a portion of an abstract file rather than a disk block. Recently,^[when?] the introduction of NAS heads^{[clarification needed]} has allowed easy conversion of SAN storage to NAS.

[edit] SAN-NAS hybrid

Hybrid using DAS, NAS and SAN technologies.

Despite the differences between SAN and NAS, it is possible to create solutions that include both technologies, as shown in the diagram.

[edit] Benefits

Sharing storage usually simplifies storage administration and adds flexibility since cables and storage devices do not have to be physically moved to shift storage from one server to another.

Other benefits include the ability to allow servers to boot from the SAN itself. This allows for a quick and easy replacement of faulty servers since the SAN can be reconfigured so that a replacement server can use the LUN of the faulty server. This process can take as little as half an hour and is a relatively new idea being pioneered in newer data centers. There are a number of emerging products designed to facilitate and speed this up still further.

Labels:

enterprise network security management

Patch Management: Automating your enterprise patch management without the routine headache

The major underlying problem facing IT management in terms of unpatched network vulnerabilities is the unyielding nature of these security threats. The manual patch-by-patch method of application has become an overwhelming task of “musical chairs”. As IT administrators take the proper precautions retrieving, analyzing, and testing patches before deployment, there is the constant threat of the open, unguarded seat “ready for the taking”. Our Autonomic Network Security Administrator (ANSA) delivers cross-platform, automated patch management.

Guard against “Open-Season” on your system with a proactive solution.

Industry Need vs. ANSA's solution

1. The ability to have up to date knowledge of known vulnerabilities to each supported platform in your network.

Fastest, 100% accurate patch availability from Autonomic Software in under 12 hours for Microsoft and other platform vendors.

Ability to apply patches in seconds.

Always applies patches in proper sequence.

2. A Vulnerability Management Solution that is easy to install, is user friendly, and provides a quick ROI.

• ANSA easily installs in a few minutes
• Easy to use, our ANSA agent deployment is the fastest in the industry
• Project and deployment for even large enterprises takes days- not months
• Large savings in terms of people, tools, and cost of ownership.

3. Assessment of Hardware and Software operating systems across the network.

• Complete Sarbanes-Oxley compliant asset management tool, easily accomplished on demand, across multiple platforms.
• Accurate management tools which are customizable to handle any request.

4. Timely deployment and installation of patches to establish and ensure network stability.

• Policy based platform allows ANSA to work around your schedule and requirements.
• Solutions that operate as transparent, background utilities.
• The most powerful and easy to use technology that guarantees air tight vulnerability management solutions for the security needs of today and beyond.

5. A technologically advanced architecture designed to support current and future Vulnerability Management requirements.

• Industry acclaimed technology designed in this century, including .NET framework and N-tier architecture, easily allows for the rapid expansion of any enterprise’ requirements (regardless of size or need)
• Patented agent and communication technology delivers an autonomic environment that accommodates any size deployment easily and accurately.
• A technological solution that provides effortless management of any security attack in your present environment and well into the future.

ANSA is a policy driven, automated management solution that extends to the network, system, and application level, resulting in a secure and reliable computing environment.

When considering the current state of enterprise security and patch management it is difficult to believe that, until just a few years ago, patch management was viewed as a labor intensive project rarely given a second glance (let alone an update) after the initial install. Now, however, the importance of reliable patch management solutions has been sparked by the danger associated with unsecured computing environments which are, at a given moment, susceptible to any number of worms or malicious attacks. Even further, new government regulations (such as SOX and Hippa) are pushing enterprises to regain control over their asset information. Unfortunately, although fear of compliancy regulations and system infiltration has spurred consumers to find a solution to system vulnerability, it has not put a stop to the frequency or severity of unpatched software.

The goal of a Patch Management Solution is to create an organized and stable computing environment continuously protected against security breaches. This goal is not attainable, however, without the ability of an IT administrator to validate, test, and deploy patches in a timely manner. Any delay between the discovery and repair of system vulnerabilities allows for an even greater chance of attack. IT departments are overwhelmed by the rate at which new patches, updates and “hot fixes” are released. Short on resources and time, impulsive decisions are often made resulting in oversight and system vulnerability. Due to the criticality of time management and proper installation, the time consuming process of manually deploying updates patch-by-patch is widely rejected by IT executives, analysts and vendors alike.

Autonomic Software, Inc. has developed our ANSA agent to pick up where even the most vigilant administrators often fall short- patch management. With the needs of these IT professionals in mind, ANSA was developed as a tool to extend the capacity of IT resources, enabling project teams to respond in a more deliberate and timely manner.

A powerful and flexible patch management solution

ANSA provides a cross-platform (Microsoft Windows 9.x, NT, 2000, and XP, and 2003 family, Red Hat ((and soon other distro's)) Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X) solution utilizing agent-based, N-tier architecture. Also delivering an automated approach to patch management, our ANSA agent can meet the needs of every organization with computing assets. Through the use of a policy engine, ANSA allows IT Administrators to set rules for various severity levels for patches, and establish what steps should be taken for each. Our patented agent technology allows for an extremely small footprint while still allowing the fastest possible distribution of patches by groups, system function, or system state. Patch Distribution can be managed per site or across an entire multi-site enterprise from a single web-based user interface by one or more parties.

Labels:

computer network security degree

Top Ranked Computer Security and Network Security Degree Program - Atlanta, GA

Kennesaw State University, approximately 22 miles outside of Atlanta, offers some of the best Computer Security and Network Security degree programs. This Kennesaw, GA-based university has a Bachelor of Science program in Information Security and Assurance and an Information Security and Assurance certificate program.

Kennesaw State University College of Science and Mathematics near Atlanta, GA

The College of Science and Mathematics in Kennesaw, GA, is home to the Department of Computer Science and Information Systems. Its ABET-accredited undergraduate programs in computer science and information security are based on a strong technical foundation including systems analysis, systems architecture, programming principles, data communications, and database design and management. The Information Security and Assurance undergraduate degree is designed for students interested the protection of information. The following degree programs in Computer and Network Security are:

• Bachelor of Science in Information Security and Assurance : The Bachelor of Science in Information Security and Assurance (BS-ISA) provides students with a foundation in computer programming, operations and data communications. The topics covered range from telecommunication and network security to access control systems and from security management to cryptography. Courses in computer operation security, computer law and discovery recovery planning give students the skills necessary for technical and administrative functions. The program offers both lecture overviews and hands-on experiences.
• Information Security and Assurance Certificate Program : The Certificate in Information Security and Assurance comprise 15 credit hours from CSIS, ISA and/or Criminal Justice degree programs. Students are required to have taken prerequisite classes in computing, programming principles and data communications before admission into the program. Students may submit a portfolio or similar coursework to be considered for exemption. The Committee on National Security Systems and the National Security Agency accredit the information security and assurance certificate program.

Quick Facts about Kennesaw State University

Kennesaw State University is four-year public university outside of Atlanta. It has almost 18,000 undergraduates enrolled yearly. The apartment-style housing at Kennesaw State University costs approximately $4,750 to $7,300 annually.

Labels:

managed network hosting

Managed Web Hosting Leader

With 13 years of expertise in managed web hosting, single and multiple server colocation and enterprise managed dedicated servers, we have the most extensive portfolio of data center colocation and managed Web hosting services in the industry.

Each of our data centers offer a full spectrum of services - server colocation, clustered and load balanced servers, shared Web hosting, managed dedicated servers, unmanaged dedicated and business Internet connectivity.

Our state-of-the-art data centers include our main Network Operations Center in Dallas, Texas and our full-service data center and web hosting facility in Los Angeles, California.

Please take a moment to fully explore the managed Web hosting, full service dedicated servers and server colocation services that we provide.

---

Dedicated Servers

Our dedicated server offerings address customer needs for stability and complete server management. From single-server plans to multi-server Business Continuity solutions, our experienced technical staff will support you at every stage.

Colocation

Our colocation services offer your business advanced hosting infrastructure in our Data Centers backed by experienced technical support. With reliable and secure Colocation service, we keep customers’ servers online by protecting them from catastrophic environmental failure.

Managed Services

Every server platform is custom-built to your business hosting needs and specifications using our process to Assess, Design, Implement and Manage. Complementary managed and professional services create a holistic solution for any complex hosting need.

Labels: